I am celebrating the young cold and flu season, as I am suffering from a cold
and/or flu already. It came on startlingly quickly following seeing my buddy
Devicer, who has been suffering himself, so at least I'm pretty sure I know who
to blame. Anyway, thank goodness for Cold-Eeze (you know you're sick if you
can't taste the zinc) and Tylenol Cold... for the next few days I'm gonna be an
over-the-counter drug fiend.

Find a good chiropractor. Hopefully you know someone who can recommend one.

Here's a quick personal history.

Apparently I was born with an extra vertebrae in my lower back. This has the effect of giving my lower back a slight curve making it unstable - in other words it'll never be strong and there's nothing much I can do about it.

When I was 13 I was walking down some stairs at school and felt a very small pain in my lower back. A half hour later I couldn't straighten up past 90 degrees. I saw doctors first in the emergency room and later, after it happened again and again, visited various doctors who never did anything or even sometimes made it worse. I even visited a chiropractor or two who also did nothing for me.

A few years later when it happened again I visited another chiropractor who had been recommended. He instantly diagnosed the problem that I was born with (no one else noticed) and actually fixed the problem. Talk about a revelation, up until meeting him I would be bedridden for days every time my back went out. I've been going to him ever since and he always fixes me up.

Good luck.

Edit: When I say he "fixed the problem" I just mean he made it feel better, he didn't do any surgery or anything. Also, after a successful chiropractor visit, I never feel any different, that's because the muscles still need to relax and the nerve that had been irritated needs to calm down and that can take a day or so.